Remnants of Second World War flying school in Calgary disappearing

Tamara Gignac, Calgary Herald05.05.2013

This is Andy Robson’s 1943 photo of his fellow trainees at No. 3 Service Flying Training School at Currie Barracks. Now 91, he was in his early 20s when he trained to be a pilot at the Lincoln Airfield.Ted Rhodes
/ Calgary Herald

Andy Robson, 91, holds a 1943 photo of his fellow trainees at the No. 3 Service Flying Training School at Currie Barracks. He trained to be a pilot at the Lincoln Airfield. The last of the airfield buildings including the hanger at left and the Wildrose Brewery building, on the right, are soon to be demolished.Ted Rhodes
/ Calgary Herald

During the Second World War, hundreds of young men from as far away as Australia and New Zealand learned to fly bomber aircraft at the No. 3 Service Flying Training School in Calgary.

It was an important aviation hub for pilots bound for overseas combat — although little remains today of the former British Commonwealth air training facility.

But as the former Currie Barracks military base completes its transition to a trendy urban neighbourhood, some are concerned the few landmarks that remain will be lost to the sands of time.

Andy Robson, 91, got his wings at the wartime school on Sept. 26, 1943. He learned to fly on a Cessna Crane and later volunteered for Bomber Command in England.

“It would be really nice to see what is left preserved. A lot of pilots trained here. It has an important history,” he said.

The remaining hangars from the era are slated for demolition next year to make way for the last of three development projects on the 81 hectare site.

Once complete, it will include thousands of housing units as well as retail space and offices. Currie Barracks is the last of three projects on the former CFB Calgary military base, which is a highly-sought parcel of inner-city real estate popular with upper middle-class families as well students and professors from nearby Mount Royal University.

Back in 1935, the army property was in the middle of nowhere.

“There wasn’t much around there. It was pretty isolated,” Robson recalled.

“To get there from downtown, you took the streetcar as far as Marda Loop and then you walked across the prairie out to the airport.”

Construction began that year on an unpaved landing field on the southern section of Currie Barracks.

Beginning in 1940, a portion of the land became the pilot training school. It closed in 1945, and the airfield was later renamed RCAF Lincoln Park, which served as a repair depot and a NATO pilot training facility until consolidation within the Canadian military closed aviation operations for good in 1964.

The abandoned runways were later used as a racetrack for sports car and motorcycle racing until the early 1980s. For years, a collection of deteriorating wartime hangars and other properties remained like ghosts from a bygone era.

Some of the structures have disappeared, but others carry on as film studios and even a pub.

The clock is ticking, however.

Many military buildings have existed on borrowed time since the mid-1990s, when the federal Liberals under Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced the closure of Currie Barracks.

Canada Lands, a Crown corporation that redevelops property no longer required by the federal government, converted the site for mixed residential and retail use, starting with Garrison Woods on the east side of Crowchild Trail just south of 33rd Avenue S.W.

As Canada Lands moves ahead with building on the huge tract of land that remains, including the former airfield, officials say they are committed to honouring the site’s military past.

“There is a significant amount of both historical buildings and spaces that will be preserved here on Currie,” said Doug Cassidy, Canada Land’s western region vice-president.

Approximately a dozen buildings are designated provincial heritage sites and will be refurbished and in some cases used as business space.

The Officers Mess on Trasimene Crescent will stay, as will a formal garden behind the structure and all of the barracks buildings around Parade Square.

But the remaining aircraft hangars will be demolished, including a green Quonset occupied by the Wild Rose Brewery.

The building known as AF23 was used as a military clothing supply store and, more recently, a set for a Jackie Chan movie.

Ultimately, AF23 was deemed not to have any heritage value. Cassidy said he understands some people are not pleased to see the hangars disappear from the former RCAF lands, given their early ties to Calgary’s wartime airfield.

But from an urban design perspective, there is no logical way to keep them.

“It would be hard to build the community around them,” he said.

Cynthia Klassen spends much of her spare time fighting to keep local buildings with historic significance from the wrecking ball.

Her group, the Calgary Heritage Initiative Society, is scrambling to save McHugh House, a 117-year-old brick and sandstone building in Mission and one of the city’s oldest heritage homes.

She is also pushing to hang on to the Barron Building, an art moderne tower in the Beltline that went up after the 1947 Leduc oil strike.

Klassen said it is disappointing to see the AF23 Quonset and other structures associated with Calgary’s air force pilot training area demolished, but her group has limited resources to fight the move.

“We haven’t really taken a stand on that one yet. We’ve got a lot of other battles we’re trying to fight right now,” Klassen said.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always make sense to save everything, she added.

“The idea is to maintain the integrity of an area and look for adaptive reuse of buildings,” she said.

Cassidy insisted Canada Lands is striving to do just that.

“There are so many people with a connection to Currie. I hear a lot of statements like, ‘my dad was stationed there,’ ” he said.

“There is a desire to rebuild it while retaining a certain amount of the character and commemorating the military legacy.”

For now, the hangars remain. The city has yet to receive an application for demolition.

That offers little comfort to Jaeson Cardiff, a longtime Calgarian with personal ties to the old RCAF Lincoln Park.

He sees it as the end an era.

“My grandparents lived just across the way from the old airfield. I remember as a kid, sirens would go off during practice and there would be helicopters landing there,” Cardiff said.

“I always knew there was an airport there and that it played a fairly major role in Canada during the Second World War.”

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.